About the Authors:
John Watson
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Hi, I'm John Watson and I'm not a GM, unlike most of the others on this site. I started chess a bit late at age 13 and, true to my later experiences, I learned from books. They were in fact reasonably advanced books - I never read a beginner's book - and after one year I walked into the Omaha, Nebraska chess club and beat most everyone there!After one tournament my first U.S.C.F. rating was over 2100 and it stayed about there or above from then on. The few dedicated chess players in Omaha had access to just a few regional tournaments a year, so we didn't improve much. But I got lucky and took first place at the initial U.S. National High School Championship. I knew absolutely nothing and relied upon totally unsound tactics to win. Maybe there's a lesson in that: Now I play soundly and lose.
I went to Harvard for a couple of years, traveled a lot in strange lands doing odd jobs (sometimes hustling chess), and returned to do some full time work in two factories.
I began to play more chess and had some successes. My greatest triumph in that time period was the release of Chessman Comics, co-produced by Chris Hendrickson and self-published at the local copy shop. We ran a business called the Chess House that attracted a number of nice people and a much larger number of mentally disturbed ones!
I spent a few years working to become an International Master and wrote my first books (on the English Opening!!) in 1979. As of this date I've written 22 wildly popular books, the majority of which went out of print in less than a year. I've saved a copy of each...I think.
In 1988 I managed to complete a degree with honours in Electrical Engineering at the University of California in San Diego and spent five mostly forgettable years working as a Design Engineer specializing in communications algorithms. Upon reviving, I ran away and wrote some more chess books, this time for firms that have fortunately stayed afloat. I've also written many articles and had a bundle of students over the past 30 years.
My real interests include my wife, politics, socioeconomic issues, music, eating, sleeping, literature, and my dog (sometimes).
Jonathan Rowson
Jonathan Rowson became Scotland's third Grandmaster in 1999 a month after graduating with a first class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University.
He writes a regular review column for New in Chess Magazine called 'Rowson's Reviews' and his second and third chess books, The Seven Deadly Chess Sins and Chess for Zebras, have been internationally acclaimed and translated into several languages.
In 2004 he won the prestigious Hastings Premier and The British Championship- the first Scot to do so for 58 years! He has since won it a further two times making that three in a row! He currently lives in London as a semi-professional player, teacher and writer. He is also a doctoral student in Psychology and Education at Bristol University.
Andrew Martin
Andy moved from the KID in October 2002
Playing Titles:
International Master
FIDE Master
British Master
Current ELO 2446
Author of numerous books, articles and videos on the game including Winning with the King’s Indian, Secret Weapons and the Contemporary Anti-Dutch. Currently Regular Columnist to CHESS Magazine.
Professional Chess Coach- currently Chief Coach to the English Junior Squad. Trainer of 4 previous and current Junior World Champions as well as a battery of National Junior Champions. Teaches Chess in seven separate Schools- very interested in developing this side of the game.
Commentator at several World Championship matches and the British Championship.
Winner of numerous International and National Open Tournaments. 1st GM Norm at the British Championship, Brighton 1997.
Favours original and creative play.
42 years old- Married with 4 young children. Life is hectic!
About GM Nigel Davies
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Strong English/Welsh GM Nigel took control of this site in March 2001, as Alex couldn't find time to both write and play all the tournaments he wanted.Here we see Nige in typical jovial mood. He hopes to bring his renowned inventiveness to this portion of ChessPublishing.com!
Nigel won the British U21 Championship in 1979 and the British Open quickplay championship in 1988. He obtained the GM title in 1993. He has extensive experience in the Pirc/Modern Defence (including wins over Anand and Larsen with the latter), and has also played these systems with colours reversed, to great effect.
Nigel is well-known for his ability as a trainer, and is currently writing a book on Alekhine's Defence.
Nigel writes: "between writing updates I can often be found in the pubs in Southport, and I have a dog called 'Nimzo'"!
About the previous incumbent, GM Alexander Volzhin
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Alex Volzhin, who is currently Bareev's second, doing battle with guest contributor Neil McDonald at Hastings, England
Rostov-Don, Russia
I was born February 2nd, 1971 in Rostov-Don, Russia. When I was 3 years old my parents moved to small town of Makhachkala in the very southern part of Russia, where I lived till 1997. Now I reside in Rostov again. Although I've learned the rules of chess at the age of 5, I didn't play it seriously for a long time... I was more interested in basketball.
Basketball not chess
Although I lived in a very small town we had very good basketball team. We were 3 times champions of Russia in different ages. When I was 13, there were chess schoolchildren championship of the town, and somebody had to represent our school. We had no chessplayers and our teacher asked us: " OK, who can just play?". I answered that I could. So I was told to participate in this event. Surprisingly for me I won all my games and became the champion of the town. After this I've got interested in chess more seriously. Besides soon I was injured and couldn't play basketball any more at desired level. It had to be chess.
A few years later I became a member of the Russian junior team and played some Soviet team championships for it. Then in 1993 I earned the title of International Master, and in 1997, you guessed it, the GM title!
Now I mainly concentrate on playing tournaments (I 'm in the very beginning of the 2nd hundred in the world rankings), and don't contribute much to different chess publications. So this site is rather a rare opportunity for me.
My interests have not changed too much: sports (although now mainly as a TV-spectator), music, foreign languages (except Russian I speak a little English, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and I use every opportunity to improve them), computers and of course the internet.
Best regards
Alex Volzhin